Carl Soderberg skates, Bruins get silly in practice

WILMINGTON — Bruins forward Carl Soderberg returned to the ice Monday, skating before the team’s practice at Ristuccia Arena as he works his way back from an ankle injury. Soderberg did not participate in practice, with Jordan Caron remaining on the third line left wing.

“He skated this morning, so he’s getting closer,” Claude Julien said of Soderberg.

After Soderberg finished up and the ice was cleaned, the Bruins acted silly by doing drills with the opposite-shot sticks. After doing offensive zone drills for about 10 minutes, they had a shootout, with a left-handed Shawn Thornton actually scoring on Tuukka Rask.

The Bruins last skate with opposite-shot sticks in a laugh-a-minute practice last season, so with four days between games (they took Sunday off and play the Avalanche Thursday), Julien took the opportunity to keep things light.

“For me, the [hardest] drill in practice is finding a warmup drill where you allow guys to get guys to get their legs and goaltenders feeling pucks,” Julien said. “It was one of the things we’ve done before, give them a chance to loosen up and have fun with it. We’re three days away from the next game, so I don’t think we have to be too hard on them in a Monday morning practice.”